History

But maybe that's the fault of having really good teachers who actually made it interesting and engaging when I was young.

LARRY GONICK

just picked up "cartoon history of the modern world part 1" and it has reconfirmed his genius in mine eyes. not that it needed reconfirming!!

Why is history considered a boring subject?

It's so passé, dude.

I got cartoon history of the US in my baffroom

It's considered boring because you have to learn about events that you may not think interesting at that stage of your life, from a point of view you might not care about or agree with.

I think this is what it boils down to. Most people have at least some curiosity about why certain things in their life are the way they are, and it would probably be more effective to teach some historical lessons starting from the present and working from there. Much of high school history takes and "and then what happened was" approach, where you're required to memorize what seem like arbitrary facts about events like the War of 1812 and the Louisiana Purchase.

chronology of events vs. narrative of people and ideas

yeah. And I'm not one of those anti-memorization people either; I think dates, basic geography etc. are pretty essential. But I think it takes a rare mind to glean much of an abstract understanding from the procession of events in typical high school textbooks.

I'd like to know if anthony asks vague open-ended questions as an inkblot test of ILXors.

the thing i love about the cartoon history books is they square the circle between LARGE SCALE MOVEMENT of ideas stuff and INDIVIDUAL HUMAN MOTIVATIONS stuff, both of which are totally absent from high school this-happened-and-then-this-happened history.

i love history for wierd cross currents like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlaam_and_Josaphat

I had a Vietnam vet for U.S. History in college that cried multiple times during his own lectures.

"My god... the Louisiana Purchase... what were they thinking???"

srsly, suck it up. Magnum P.I. never cried.

Yes, but he had a Ferrari, and a mate with a helicopter. Not a teaching job.

yeah, he actually had it pretty fuckin easy, come to think of it.

this guy presenting this show about the Normans reminds me a lil of underrated aero iirc, but older

I like Bartlett, he has a fair modicum of old kool.

did we ever get history sorted lads did we

its a funny thing tho history i mean its just what ppl say isnt it

sure

any thing could be history

its not even what the victors say is it, its just what the people still hanging around and repeating themselves say until the next gang who havent a clue start repeating it themselves and then voila jaysus look, history

even when the thing discussed itself is a written record with thousands of participants

its some gig, history writing

is this trolling am i being trolled, youd ask

history is a part of yourself you kill, bury, exhume and then denounce, while it is still you

i call it herstory

Sometimes things actually happen though

hmmm.seems unlikely

I liked when Šutruk-Nakhunte sacked Babylon and returned home with the stele of Naram-Sin as an offering to Inshushhinak

the bed ain’t made, it’s filled full of hope

all of us act like language has value every day of our lives. so, it's disingenuous to act like whatever you say from one day to the next has something approaching meaning and value, but also dismiss history (or herstory) as "just what ppl say". I recommend you remove the "just" and acknowlege that you pay close attention to "what ppl say" in other spheres of life, including yerself as among those "ppl".